Hoodwinked! (2005)

Absolutely Fantastic

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Blistering performances.

Hoodwinked (2005): Dir: Cory Edwards / Voices: Anne Hathaway, Patrick Warburton, Jim Belushi, Glenn Close, Cory Edwards: Absolutely hilarious computer animated satire about fairy tales. We have all heard this story at some point in our childhood but chances are that we never heard it told quite like this. Little Red Riding Hood cycles to Granny's house delivering goodies. Once there she is confronted with the big bad wolf and that is where the plot takes an unexpected turn from the traditional story. Red, Granny, the woodsman, and the wolf are all arrested and taken into custody where their versions of the story are revealed. What director Cory Edwards does is double standards all these characters that result in hilarious storytelling that sidelines repetition with surprise. Anne Hathaway voices Red who knows martial arts and is out to solve the case at hand. Patrick Warburton steals scenes as the wolf who claims to be an undercover journalist. Jim Belushi voices the woodsman who dreams of being a stage actor. Glenn Close voices Granny who is a secret daredevil. Their stories parallel but not without surprise. Cory Edwards provides the high sped voice of Twitchy the squirrel, the wolf's photographer sidekick. Colorful and extremely funny reworking of the classic fairy tale that completely overturns our expectations on the roles these characters traditionally played. Score: 9 / 10

Hoodwinked! is an interesting movie because you generally see an animated movie for the beautiful animation mixed with an emotional/interesting story. However, Hoodwinked! is good mostly for its well written dialogue and interesting twist on the formula. The movie's premise is that the whole story of Little Red Riding Hood is a big mix-up where nobody truly knows the story. The cops bust in and automatically blame the Wolf as being the bad guy, until a detective decides to hear the whole story and figure out who is really behind this whole affair.Since the movie is essentially a mystery, the nice thing is that there actually is a mystery. Granted, anyone over the age of 10 or 12 will probably figure out who the culprit is pretty quickly, it is still nice that the movie doesn't actually write it out for you who the villain is until the characters know who it is. This makes the movie a bit more entertaining because you have to be thinking a little bit while watching the movie. The second time you watch the movie the more clues and hints you will pick up on.As far as characters go, the voice acting is pretty good and most of them are pretty interesting. The Woodsman isn't as interesting, but he isn't horrible or overly annoying.What makes this movie really strong is its writing. A lot of the jokes really work, the timing is really nice, and the absurd amount of puns and other weird things thrown into the movie makes it very entertaining. It is odd how strong this movie's writing and dialogue is compared to its appearance.Unfortunately, the movie has pretty bad animation. Now, to be fair, the movie was made by a very small company on a very small budget. And the movie manages to make all of the important scenes look good. The movie hasn't aged well, but there are still some shots that look nice.The funny thing about Hoodwinked! and its theme of "Don't judge something off of a quick glance" is that it applies to the movie as a whole. From a distance, Hoodwinked! looks like a poorly animated, generic, and bland animated movie. However, it is actually a very funny, entertaining, original, and poorly animated movie.Definitely worth a watch.

Good - The plot fits (almost) perfectly like a puzzle. The ending is very surprising and some of the casting is good. The animation is better than most. Excellent for family/kid viewers.Bad - The songs are rarely sung, and when they do come to singing the music is very dreadful. The animation, though better than most, is still very lousily made at some parts. One of the best examples for this is in the woodcutters story, when he is selling his goodies, the children are terribly frightening, though probably not meant to. The story line alters the story a lot, even though it may even been meant to, but they change it so much it dizzys you and mocks your mamas version of it. The grandma, very surprisingly and almost impossibly does "extreme" things which people, much less an elderly person is able to do.

I knew that this computer animated film was based on the fairytale of Little Red Riding Hood, and I had seen the poster and DVD cover quite a few times, and even with its low rating I was willing to sit through it hoping for some fun. Basically everyone knows the story of Little Red Riding Hood, the young girl in the red hood going to visit to her Granny and being surprised by the Big Bad Wolf, but this is the "true" story of what happened. Told from four perspectives, Red Puckett - Little Red Riding Hood (Anne Hathaway), Wolf W. Wolf - the Big Bad Wolf (Patrick Warburton), Kirk the Woodsman (James Belushi) and Granny (Glenn Close), they are questioned by detective Nicky Flippers (Beauty and the Beast's David Ogden Stiers) about everything that happened and led to the incident in the cottage in the forest. Red explains that she was delivering goods to Granny, but a threat from recipe stealing Goodie Bandit forced her to head a different direction, on her journey she met the Wolf who asked her suspicious questions, and when she arrived at the cottage the Wolf was there dressed in Granny's clothes, the real Granny was tied up in the closet, and the Woodsman burst in through the window. The Wolf explains he is an investigative reporter, he was searching for a lead to identify the Goodie Bandit, believing Red and Granny were culprits, hence questioning Red, but when she escaped him he travelled to the cottage and went undercover as Granny hoping to get the evidence he needed. Kirk the Woodsman reveals he is actually an aspiring actor, being a woodsman was for a part in a commercial, and after having his schnitzel truck robbed by the Goodie Bandit he went to woods to get into character, chopping trees, one falls and he runs in panic from it and avoiding it he smashed through the window of Granny's cottage. Finally Granny explains she is an extreme sports enthusiast, during a ski race she was attacked by the opposing team, they were actually hired by the Goodie Bandit, but Red is unsure whether or not to believe her story. But Nicky Flippers deduces a connection with all four of the stories, they all met the bunny rabbit Boingo (Andy Dick), and that he is the Goodie Bandit, but Boingo has already stolen the recipes of Granny, while the police go the wrong direction Red spots him and follows him to his secret hideout. Boingo plans to put an addictive substance into all recipes he has stolen, and destroy the forest to make way for new real estate to expand his business, but in the end the villain is caught, Kirk found success in a yodelling troupe, and Red, Wolf and Granny become part of Happily, the crime solving organisation. Also starring Anthony Anderson as Detective Bill Stork, Xzibit as Chief Grizzly, Chazz Palminteri as Woolworth, Cory Edwards (also directing) as Twitchy and Benjy Gaither as Japeth the Goat. The voice casting is alright, Hathaway as a karate loving girl, and proving her singing ability long before her Oscar win for Les Misérables, and Close as a feisty old lady, the Pulp Fiction editing is okay, but the songs are naff, the story is underdeveloped and silly, the characters are predictable, and the animation especially looks cheap, the youngest ages probably won't get any excitement from this either, it is a rather rubbish family computer animated comedy. Pretty poor!